Cork Views: Turn your garden into a fruit and veg larder

“Community gardens are where the soul of a neighbourhood blossoms.” 

So said lead volunteer Mandie Rekaby on the re-opening of Togher Community Garden in Cork earlier this month.

She said it was a place where “strangers become neighbours and neighbours become friends. In these shared sanctuaries, tomatoes ripen and herbs grow alongside laughter. Children learn that carrots come from the earth, not plastic bags, and the older generation passes down knowledge like heirlooms, one season at a time.”

What a lovely description of the huge benefits that community gardens bring to a neighbourhood. Those words kept going through my head as I toiled with my vegetable patch in the front garden this May.

Last year, I decided to plant vegetables there beside the gate. It’s a sunny sloping patch that demands attention every time I go in and out, ensuring that the bed was kept well weeded and watered and burgeoning crops were picked before they went to seed.

But there were other advantages. A constant flow of neighbours up and down the road would stop to chat, offer advice, talk to their kids about growing veg while accepting lettuce, onions and carrots plucked from the ground.

I began to think of all the advantages fruit and vegetable plots in the front garden can offer - not just to me and my family but to the whole community.

Imagine if every household converted a strip in their front garden to growing fruit and vegetables – what would that do for health and wellbeing in communities?

Food security

Climate change is accelerating with hotter summers, wetter winters, stronger storms and floods - all making agriculture more challenging. Last summer, fruit and vegetable crops in Europe were severely impacted by droughts and fires as well as intense heat.

Olive crops in Spain were decimated leading to higher olive oil prices. Italian tomato harvests were reduced and cereal harvests in southern Europe were down 60%. Fruit crops like apricots and peaches in Greece suffered.

Nutrition and health

There is strong evidence that eating up to five portions of fruit and veg a day is linked to lower mortality and better long-term health. Several studies have shown a link between adherence to the Mediterranean diet, traditionally high on fruit and vegetables and reduced risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

We are used to being told to eat 5-7 portions of fruit and vegetables a day. Now we are being told it is not just the quantity but variety that counts. 

The most recent evidence suggests eating 30 different plants a week can boost the healthy bacteria or microbiome in your gut that can have major implications for your overall health. The 30 includes herbs and spices as well as fruit and veg – all of which can be grown at home. Think of apple, pear and plum trees, lettuce, cabbage, carrots, onion, garlic, celery, broccoli, peas and green beans. Herbs such as mint, thyme, sage, parsley, chives and spices such as chilli peppers.

A little of a lot means crops being harvested constantly as they appear over the summer.

Pesticides

A downside to the current system of agriculture is the volume of chemical sprays required for cultivation.

Insecticides, herbicides and fungicides are designed to kill off problem organisms. One of the best knows is glyphosate, the active ingredient in the widely used weed-killer marketed as Roundup, but this is only one of the hundreds of pesticides currently licensed for use in Ireland.

Growing your own means you can guarantee your crops are pesticide-free.

Microplastics

The exponential rise in microplastic pollution over the past 50 years may be reflected in increasing contamination in human brains, according to a new study. It found a rising trend in micro and nanoplastics in brain tissue from dozens of post-mortems over the last three decades.

The human body is widely contaminated by microplastics. They have also been found in blood, breast milk, placenta and bone marrow. The impact on our health is largely unknown, but they have been linked to strokes and heart attacks. Concentrations of microplastics have recently been found to be about six times higher in brain samples of those with dementia.

The research published in Nature Medicine found that the most common plastic was polyethylene, which is used in plastic bags and food and drink packaging. It made up 75% of the total plastic on average.

Growing our own fruit and veg removes a major source of microplastics coming from products, often travelling thousands of miles that are packaged and wrapped in plastic.

Loneliness

A quarter of adults in Ireland feel lonely some of the time, according to research by Prof Rose Anne Kenny, head of the academic department of medical gerontology at Trinity Collee Dublin and principal investigator of the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing.

My experience of growing fruit and veg in my front garden is that neighbours, young and old, passing the gate will almost always stop for a few words or a longer chat. For some, it might be the only chance they have to chat all day. Parents stop with their kids and give them a chance to see and feel the vegetables and fruit ripening in the summer sun.

Who knows how many will go on to set up a vegetable patch for themselves in the future?

Physical activity

Most Irish adults spend at least five hours a day in sedentary activity while less than half are meeting the recommended physical activity guidelines of 30 minutes five times a week of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.

Last weekend, while composting and planting vegetables, I totted up over 12,000 steps from the compost heap at the back of the garden to the plot beside the front gate. Added to that, hauling five wheelbarrows full of rich compost up the sloping garden was better than any work-out in the gym. Gardening is some of the best exercise there is, guaranteed to work every muscle group and send you into a deep slumber when bedtime comes around.

Growing your own fruit and veg has many other benefits including lowering greenhouse gas emissions from crops produced thousands of miles away or from intensive agricultural practices; restoration of natural ecosystems as well as lowering food bills, especially if you are growing goods that can be expensive.

Imagine if it was common practice for all of us to use our front plots for growing food. How much healthier our diets would be, how tighter our communities through chatting and sharing stories and produce, and how much more resilient our food systems would be.

“A community garden is more than a patch for fruit and vegetables,’ says Mandie, “it’s a living love letter to resilience, co-operation, and the magic of watching something flourish because many hearts believed it could.”